So here's the scoop. A couple people asked me recently, "who do you live in Portland, yer always fussing!" I've been rambling on about the frustrations of Portland Metro and Portland Streetcar blowing it on this, prospectively blowing it on that, and generally wasting tons of money that they don't need to. It can be perceived as negative and often it seems like I don't have anything positive to write about Portland. Well on the contrary, I have tons of things to write about that are positive, the problem is the positive things don't need fixed! On the topic of positive things, the rest of this entry is going to enumerate some of those things with a slight comparison of how PDX kicks your city's ass (as in, if you dear reader, live in another city – if you live in Portland, congratulations!).

1. Portland's light rail works better than almost any other light rail in the country. Amid the supposed crime, the 85% non-working ticket machines, and all that other mess, Portland's light rail is better and more timely than San Francisco's, more worthwhile then Denver's, and the list could go on!
2. Portland's streetcar is generally clean, warm, and when it snows like it does today, very comfortable. It doesn't stop or get stuck like the buses during inclement weather, just when 18-wheelers run into the electrical poles or pricks park outside of the white lines half-way in the road. But that's why we have a tow truck arrival time of no more than 15-30 minutes. So if you're that idiot, remember, they're starting to crack down!
3. Portland is compact, meaning that I can get on a bus, a streetcar, or the MAX and get to where I want to go in short order. In Portland because it is compact I don't have to drive anywhere unless I want to. In Portland the compact nature allows me to get my mail (at a PO Box), get coffee (at Stumptown), eat a great breakfast (at ByWays Café), go to work (currently at WebTrends), eat lunch (Jake's), grab an afternoon coffee (at Stumptown or Portland Coffee), grab an afternoon beer (at Bailey's or Tugboat Brewing), and get home all before 6:00pm. You can ONLY have a lifestyle like that in a compact or close knit small town or lively urban city.
4. Portland isn't chain store driven. Sure they're snuck in here and there, but they aren't the overly dominant entity that they are in almost every other city in America. Portland has (see above reason) dozens, hundreds, and probably even a thousand or so local businesses that provide services and products like you wouldn't imagine. Almost ALL of these stores are accessible by transit!
5. I jumped on the streetcar and headed down to grab the recent Economist and Wall Street Journal. When I asked (it was right in front of me, and for some reason I missed it when looking), "Do you have a copy of the Wall Street Journal?" the response I got was, "We better have a copy, it is the best newspaper in the country, a little conservative for my taste, but by far the most well written newspaper in the nation!" Only in Portland do I get common response from clerks, baristas, and other service industry sector employees in regards to intellectually competent topics. How many cities does common populace read the Wall Street Journal? I would gander to say not as many as Portland (Maybe in Chicago or New York).
6. In Portland you can ride around on the streetcar, light rail, buses, or sit in a coffee shop, bar, restaurant or other establishment and have a really good chance of not being harassed for whipping out a laptop. In addition, it is common to have decent, privately operated, available and free wireless internet.

So that's my positive entry for this month! Portland definitely kicks your city's ass. So if you're curious about a rocking city, come visit Portland, you might just want to upgrade your lifestyle.